


Riveted By You

by WitheringFeniks



Series: Actions Have Consequences [6]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bucky Barnes & Winter Soldier are Different Personalities, Bucky Barnes-centric, Bucky goes by James, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Gen, Harley's sister's name is Mykie, Mentions of other characters - Freeform, POV Bucky Barnes, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Pre-Slash, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, tony and Soldat bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-28
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2021-01-05 19:22:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21213773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WitheringFeniks/pseuds/WitheringFeniks
Summary: Soldat learns Tony has a soft spot for kids and he gets to see what Tony's working on.





	Riveted By You

When they arrived back at Tony’s room, he was awake and babbling way to FRIDAY with a pair of sunglasses on—wait, they caught the flicker of something on the lenses. It was obvious that FRIDAY’s voice was coming from them too.

_Incredible, but when isn’t something with this man_? Soldat murmured in awe.

James definitely wasn’t going to argue with the Alter—the glasses were essentially a hand-free smartphone-like device. No doubt of his own design too.

Tony, formally distracted by the StarkPad in his hands, glanced up at he and Pepper entered.

“Pepper!” Tony grinned, but his relief shone brightly in his eyes at the sight of her.

“Tony.” Pepper answered, and they shared a hug. James politely ignored the quiet murmured between them, the worries and happiness shared.

“Sorry I wasn’t awake when you got here.”

“Don’t apologise, Tony, you have no need.” She shot the brunet a pointed look. “Your recovery is more important than greeting me.”

Tony paused, asking in a quiet voice: “And Rhodey?”

“Is awake.” Pepper answered softly, running her fingers through his hair. “But... but he’s not likely going to be able to walk again.”

Just the sheer devastating look Tony gave was—

“Shit.” He sucked in a breath, trembling. “Fuck. All this is—”

“_Don’t_ finish that sentence Tony.” Pepper interrupted sharply, Tony flinched (and James would deny it startled him also) and stared up at her with wide eyes. “What happened to Jim was _not_ your fault and you know damn well he’s going to say the same thing.” She gave Tony a sharp-pointed look, one that dared Tony to argue.

The man ground his jaw, looking desperately like he wanted to do just that but instead sighed heavily. Only to grimace and press a hand to his chest.

“Tony?” Pepper fretted lightly and James shifted as Tony’ face scrunched like he wanted to cough but was physically holding it back.

“Fine.” He rasped—and definitely sounded like he was resisting a coughing fit. He tried to take a deep breath, but it just made him break into the wheezy coughing fit.

“You shouldn’t resist the coughing; it will only make it worse.” Vision scolded, floating to hover worriedly the other side of Tony’s bed. Said man grumbled once he’d stopped, a grumbled that sounded suspiciously like “Habit.”

What habit exactly? James blinked.

Pepper sighed softly. “Unfortunately, I can’t stay long, I’ve got to get back to New York. However, you and James are going to be brought back over on Sunday. Your operation is scheduled for the Wednesday following.” She gave Tony a pointed look. “Try to be a good patient, Tony.”

Said man grinned, quite sheepishly in fact, at her words. “You know me by now, Pepper.”

“Unfortunately.” She responded dryly.

James’ lips curled upwards and Soldat felt a flash of amusement at the sight.

“That reminds me, I got a call from an extremely worried thirteen-year-old and eight-year-old by the names Harley and Mykie Keener.”

Tony paled. “Cacca.” (shit)

James raised a brow at the Italian.

“And Spider-man seemed quite worried also when I meet him.” Pepper added, Tony grimaced this time, but then pursed his lips as a thought seemed to hit him—it lit his eyes up in some sort of realisation, but they widened.

“Actually, I need you to do something for me Pep. I need you to call ‘Ren, give her a heads up because I doubt Clint even gave her a real explanation on what he was actually getting involved in.” Tony frowned and it was obvious he was more frustrated in that moment then worried—probably at Clint.

_The archer, I don’t like him, he was fond of the witch_, Soldat murmured grumpily.

_But his wife, is it his wife? Isn’t involved in the situation, and considering her husband just got himself placed in an __ultra-maximum-security prison, Tony probably feels she deserves answers that her husband is obviously not going to be able to give anytime soon, _James answered with a half-hearted shrug.

“I’ll make sure to get right on that. Will that be all Mr. Stark?” Pepper’s lips curled upwards, eyes twinkling with mirth—the words reeked of familiarity.

Tong grinned. “That’ll be all, Ms. Potts.”

* * *

Soldat watched from outside the room, leaning against a wall nursing a cup of coffee as Tony animatedly chatted with the two kids Pepper mentioned early. There was this fond glint in his eyes, but also guilt at making them worry about him.

It didn’t stop Tony from engaging with them, although he did have to occasionally pause to catch his breath, but it didn’t stop him for long.

Part of James—who had gone into a light doze—has flashed with sheepish worry when Harley’s voice had first come through the StarkPad.

_“Who the hell hurt my Mechanic?!”_

It was shortly followed by the sister’s, Mykie, own reply with a similar demand.

It was amusing—and Soldat happily watched on from a short distance, still being able to hear thanks to the Super Soldier serum but giving Tony privacy to chat with the kids.

It was mostly Tony trying to reassure the kids that he was fine and on the mend already—promising they could come up to see him once he’d had his surgery. Harley threatened to kick Tony’s arse if he didn’t do so.

* * *

Soldat was quite content to continue sitting in the chair, facing the door because old habits die hard, and listening to Tony quietly work on sketching something on the StarkPad. He occasionally asked for FRIDAY’s input but otherwise kept silent himself, immersed in the work.

It fascinated Soldat—he was getting to witness the man’s mind at work in real life and that was something he’d never thought he’d get.

Tony seemed to sense his eyes on him because he looked up, blinking owlishly. “You okay there?”

“I am fine, just—riveted at seeing you work.” Soldat admitted.

Tony blinked twice. “Really?” Confusion took over. “Why?”

Soldat huffed softly. “I have been curious about you for years—HYDRA often keep tabs on you even before you became Iron Man.”

His brows shot up. “Really?”

Soldat’s lips curled up into a smirk. “да (yes). You are a genius, a mechanic and generally a very fascinating man.”

Soldat got to watch the light tint to the man’s cheeks.

“A-anyway.” He cleared his throat and Soldat’s smirk widened. “You wanna see what I'm working on?” He wiggled his brows.

Soldat very nearly jumped to his feet at the offer, but no, he had restraint, and so stood up normally and slid up beside the man, who tilted the StarkPad so he could see.

Soldat squinted in curiosity and confusion. It was clearly some sort of blueprint schematic but of what he wasn’t quite sure, a robot?

“This is I.C.E.S which stands for Intelligent Canidae Emote System. She’s a project Harley and I are working onto together. She going to be a fox.”

He could see it not—the shape, outline and design of the robot. “It’s incredible.”

Tony smirked. “Anything I make is incredible, popsicle.”

“I don’t doubt it.”

“Is she named after the Egyptian Goddess, then?” Soldat tilted his head—the acronym wouldn’t match up if that was the case.

“Kinda, I-c-e-s, it’s another way to spell it.” Tony explained. “The idea is for her to be the equivalent of a support animal of sorts. She’ll be an AI with fox quirks implemented into her coding.”

“I stand by my previous statement—very much a fascinating man.” Soldat hummed, smirking again when Tony huffed in amusement. “But what is a support animal? I am unsure what you mean by that.”

“A support animal basically offers comfort or assistant, depending on the person. Often people with disabilities of sorts have them.”

Soldat was reminded Pisică. Made him long for her. The matted ball of hissy fur had often sort comfort from them when they had suffered from nightmares or struggled to get up in the mornings. She had made their life in Bucharest so much easier. Was that what a support animal did?

“You good?” Tony’s voice broke his thoughts, and he met the man’s eyes.

“Just thinking about a cat James and I become quite close with while in Bucharest. She managed to find a way into our apartment somehow, kept us sane in those two years.” Soldat explained, yearning Pisică presence more now than ever.

“What was she like?”

“Hissy, only let us pet her when she wanted it but gave the best cuddles. She was quite matted, her long hair made it hard for James and I to keep her brushed. She has gorgeous yellow-gold eyes and silver with black strips of fur.” Soldat huffed, a fond smile forming. “Honestly I was surprised she put up with us at all, but I think she had been a pet previously otherwise she’d not gone anywhere near us—”

**Author's Note:**

> This is what Pisică looks like. She's a grey Siberian cat: https://www.pets4homes.co.uk/cat-breeds/siberian/ 
> 
> You'll get to see what ICES looks like possibly next piece or sometime after ;)


End file.
